None of us started where we want to be in our chosen profession. We have to take courses, practice a skill, develop a good reputation with clients, or a variety of other activities that help us to move forward on a career path. There is that “in training” mode that most of us experience before completely stepping out on our own merits. Imagine that your actions were not ones that led you to being a teacher or a doctor, but instead earned you the title of “serial killer in training.”

Such a man, Mario Swain, was put to death by lethal injection earlier this month in Texas for the murder of Lola Nixon ten years ago. He beat Ms. Nixon with a tire iron, stabbed her, and strangled her in her home. Swain then threw her body into the trunk of her car and left her in another abandoned car more than one hundred miles away. It did not take long to arrest him, as a neighbor recalled a strange truck being parked outside Nixon’s home the night before and notified authorities, who linked the vehicle back to Swain.

The reason that Swain was dubbed a “serial killer in training” by one of the prosecutors is the meticulous way that he followed and scouted his potential female victims. He kept a notebook of names and license plate numbers of the women he hoped to attack. For those Swain actually did get around to robbing and not just placing in his notebook, he forced them to inhale an anesthetic and then hit them or stunned them into submission. His efforts were well planned with violent consequences intended. It appears that Lola Nixon managed to fight back more than Swain had intended, as the blood throughout her home demonstrated to investigators.

Swain had no final words. He died rather quickly. But, the state of Texas and the rest of us are now assured that his “in training” status will never change and the other women who were stalked and placed in his notebook no longer have him to fear.